EAS2023: Modern Chinese History: Beyond Revolution

EAS2023: Modern Chinese History: Beyond Revolution

20 credits (Semester 2)

Module Leader: Dr Marjorie Dryburgh (2024-25)

Module Summary

This module will examine key themes in the histories of China's short twentieth century, and the ways in which different approaches in scholarship have influenced understanding of China's recent past. While the structure of the module is loosely chronological, our emphasis is not on the detail of events but on critical analysis of broad social and political changes. You will explore these developments through individual and group work on new historical scholarship on China and a range of primary textual and visual sources, and develop critical, research and writing skills and an understanding of how Chinese histories are built.

Topics Covered

• The Historiography of Modern China – competing narratives and interpretations

• Cities – the idea of the modern and the failure of urban revolution

• Rural China – from “immiseration” to revolution

• Making sense of the war –from atrocity to accommodation

• Gendering the Chinese revolution – women, the Party, feminism and socialism

• Mao and mobilisation – the legacies of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution

Skills Development

Having successfully completed this module you will have a deeper understanding of the broad themes listed above, as well as further experience of:

Critical thinking – as you evaluate competing explanations for historical developments and consider how historical authority is asserted and communicated; this will also require a degree of cultural agility as you consider how Chinese actors and historians write about China’s recent past: is there a specifically “Chinese” history of China?

Writing and communication – you will write about course content in different registers for different written forms, including the concise delivery of arguments in the seminar blog.

Teamwork – in addition to the usual independent study involved in any taught module, you will build team-working skills as you prepare for and contribute to seminar discussions in co-operation with other students.

Study Hours

The University recommends that you spend 200 hours working on a 20-credit module. This will include:

Lectures 1 hour/week

Seminars 1 hour/week

Independent study and assessment preparation, ca 13 hours per week.

Assessment

● Portfolio - 100%

Before you start…

You will find it helpful to do some general reading on China’s short twentieth century before beginning. The quickest way in is probably via Rana Mitter’s Modern China: a very short introduction, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008; other useful surveys include:

• Karl, Rebecca E. (2010), Mao Zedong and China in the twentieth-century world: a concise history, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. (Mostly Mao-centred, but nonetheless balanced)

• Mitter, R. (2008) Modern China a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Ropp, P. (2010) China in World History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.